The Kidd's Top 10 Of 2012!!!

Had you asked me back at the beginning of January for a preliminary list of 10 films I thought would make my year-end best list, I'm certain you would have found only two films that you'll read about in a few moments making the cut then (and one of them only because I had recently seen it and thought it was that damn good). Back then, I would have been sure, absolutely positive, that there was no way the best of 2012 wouldn't have included THE DARK KNIGHT RISES or THE AVENGERS or THE HOBBIT or PROMETHEUS. But that's why they play the games, right? Or in this case... why we watch the movies. This isn't the Most Hyped 10 of 2012 list. It's my Best Of, which means the 10 movies that between January and December stuck with me for one reason or another enough to warrant recognition and celebration right around now. This isn't the best 10 movies of the past year... but they're certainly mine, and while there was some jockeying for position over the past few days and some re-examination over a couple flicks in the later stages of compiling the final cut, these 10 films never really fell out of the year-long discussion I've been having with myself over what has been truly great in the last 12 months.

So without further adieu, let's get to my Top 10 for 2012:

10. THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER

Stephen Chbosky’s adaptation of his own novel is perhaps the closest depiction of the high school experience since John Hughes gave a voice to the generation of teens that grew up during the 80s, and, regardless of how you fared through those years of your own life, there’s something to this story for you to grab hold of emotionally that represents what you were going through.

PERKS is all about finding out who you are during high school, what you're made of, as shown through the trio of Charlie, Sam and Patrick (Logan Lerman, Emma Watson and Ezra Miller). These are three kids who embody the fringe of the high school world. They're cool in their own right when viewed through the prism of their own crowd - the type of kids who dig ROCKY HORROR and The Smiths - but in the grand scheme of the high school food chain, they'd be on the fringe. However, Chbosky isn't interested with deconstructing that totem pole of popularity, as he focuses more on the troubles one deals with at this age in terms of navigating relationships or coming to terms with sexual orientation or dealing with regrets and mistakes and how they shape one's reputation.

These aren't ideas of what high schoolers are or should be, with Chbosky bringing to life characters that you know from your own experiences in the real world. That's what got me the most about PERKS - its ability to convey what high school is like for people of different walks of life. We certainly don't get through those four years in the same manner as everyone else, but, in making the trip through one year with Charlie, Sam and Patrick, we can completely identify with someone who may have shared a similar experience as our own, while also appreciating what we imagine others may have dealt with in their own survival of high school. PERKS speaks the unique language of youth that can't be faked, giving you honest glimpses into the horrors of high school.

9. SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED

Colin Trevorrow’s narrative feature film directorial debut really caught me off-guard when I saw it earlier this year, as, going on appearances alone, it definitely struck me as one of those indie films that winds up a little too quirky for its own good. However, I loved it then, and, watching it again before compiling this list, I still love it now, as it’s such a joy to watch this pairing of slightly off-kilter individuals – Aubrey Plaza and Mark Duplass – come together innocently in a world that is too often filled with skepticism.

There’s a hope to SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED that is missing from a lot of people’s lives, people who for one reason or another gave up on the dreams that filled their younger years in favor of something more stable or responsible or adult. I’ve been lucky to chase my dream of writing about movies for a living, having the support system that’s allowed me to follow through on those ambitions. But others haven’t been so lucky, having to give up on their visions of being a rock star or a filmmaker or an astronaut or whatever you really wanted to be when you grew up. At some point along the way, you may have come to the realization that it wasn’t going to happen for you, and you decided to do something else with your life. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But, in SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED, if Duplass’ Kenneth reached a point where he doubted his plans to travel back through time and then did something else, we wouldn’t have a movie so charming to watch.

Kenneth represents the part of all of us that so desperately wants to go through with every idea, every dream we ever had, no matter how crazy it might be, no matter how many people told us how stupid or ridiculous it was, because what if…? What if it just might work…?

This is a film entirely about living in the moment, and hoping for the best instead of fearing the worst. Derek Connolly’s screenplay is incredibly heartfelt, and Trevorrow manages to capture the weird charm of his two leads to have you rooting for their romance and time travel to succeed, because there can’t possibly be anyone better out there for them than each other.

8. COMPLIANCE

Out of all the films I saw this year, none had me grabbing hold of my armrests, leaning forward in uncertainty about what would occur next than Craig Zobel's COMPLIANCE. The story, which is based on a series of prank call crimes, chronicles the horrible ordeal of Becky (Dreama Walker), a fast food restaurant employee who is victimized by her manager (Ann Dowd) and others who willingly give themselves over to the direction of a phone caller identifying themselves as a police officer in the middle of a theft investigation. The psychological basis for these actions rests in the Milgram experiment, which proves an blind obediance to authority, and, while some may question how people could be so stupid as to fall fo something like this, these are events that really happened, with COMPLIANCE closely following the events of one particular incident that took place in Mount Washington, Kentucky.

This is a true horror movie in its purest sense, as you find yourself terrified for Becky, fearing for what the caller (the effectively creepy Pat Healy) might come up with next in his charade as an officer of the law to further humiliate the young woman being held under the suspicion of a petty crime she didn't commit. This is certainly humanity at its worst, but you can't help being drawn in by this psychological evaluation of how people could behave in such an inhumane way towards a girl who is deemed guilty with no thoughts of innocence ever really being entertained by any of the parties involved.

COMPLIANCE is a wonderfully compelling film that will provoke discussion about human behavior. It had me sucked in from the start, unable to turn away from watching its characters at their very worst, fearful and intrigued at exactly the same time. This is a film that haunted me upon first viewing and managed to stick with me for its rightful spot for recognition among the best of 2012.

7. KILLER JOE

2012 has been one hell of a year for Matthew McConaughey. Between the releases of BERNIE and MAGIC MIKE, McConaughey has been at the top of his game, but none really comes close to see him at his absolute best than in William Friedkin’s adaptation of Tracy Lett’s KILLER JOE. McConaughey serves in the title role as Joe Cooper, the Dallas detective who moonlights as a contract killer, who gets mixed up with the very definition of white trash – played remarkably by Emile Hirsch, Thomas Haden Church and Gina Gershon - in their efforts to collect on some insurance money in order to ease some of their financial troubles. With them being broke and Joe needed some type of commitment for his effort, a special retainer arrangement is reached, one that gets him Dottie (Juno Temple) until his job is done and he gets paid, which presents a new set of problems for everyone involved.

The material is both comical and dark at different times, as we watch Hirsch’s Chris pull out every trick in the book to try to make the situation better while only digging the hole he created even deeper. But it isn’t until McConaughey has the family gathered around the kitchen table that you understand just how uncomfortable Friedkin’s film can get, watching Joe toy with a bunch of half-wits he’s capable of slaughtering at any moment.

I saw this film twice, once in a room full of critics and the other with a regular audience, and seeing it with a crowd that got the material made it that much better, as they just knew the exact moments when it was fine to laugh along with the stupidity of the film’s characters yet clammed up with the quickness at the seriousness of that pivotal and revealing moment with Joe and those who aren’t nearly as smart as him.

It’s not hard to believe that people like this truly do exist somewhere in the depths of the United States, and Friedkin and Letts do a wonderful job in taking them from being caricatures of the trailer park and turning them into willing participants in a crime that they’re convinced is a great answer to their problems. It may not turn out all too great for them, but it works out just fine for us.

6. END OF WATCH

The buddy cop film has been done to death, with two partners, who have no business working with each other, somehow finding common ground in the most convenient places to solve some crime that no one else could possibly crack, for they lack the hijinks necessary to get them through the investigation long enough to uncover the truth. However, David Ayer’s latest cop film isn’t about these movie-created supercops at all, as, using the found-footage subgenre to his advantage, the writer-director puts you right in the squad car with a pair of partners as they deal with the dirty task of cleaning up the streets of Los Angeles.

There are comedic elements brought into the fold from those buddy cop flicks, which are inherent in having two guy, close enough to be considered brothers, stuck in a car with each other on a daily basis, but, where END OF WATCH truly succeeds is in establishing Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena as real people, with lives outside of the badge, who simply serve and protect as their job. They absolutely have the egos that come with busting criminals, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t at risk of getting in over their heads or fucking up on the job. This film absolutely respects the danger that comes with the job every time they go out on a call. There is no hotshotting on the job, because that type of behavior will get you killed in the line of duty.

END OF WATCH nails the sense of brotherhood that exists among those in law enforcement like few others ever have, and, for the in-depth sense of reality the film creates by making you a fly on the wall in the life of two police officers, Ayers has made a premiere cop movie.

5. LOOPER

I hate seemingly being the last person to see a film, because no matter how much I try to avoid any advance word before I have the chance to experience a film for myself, the power of Facebook and Twitter will always force upon me the opinions of those who have had the pleasure of watching it earlier. That unfortunately begins to set the bar for a film beyond my control, and in many cases, when the studio finally does get around to letting me see a picture, it then just doesn’t deliver on the lofty expectations that others have set for it.

That happened with 21 JUMP STREET, which plenty of people were proclaiming as the next great comedy before I ever laid eyes on it, and, when Columbia Pictures finally decided to let me see it right before its release, I just wasn’t all that impressed. The overhype had worked against the film, which, while funny, was nothing special.

Therefore, I was worried that a similar set of circumstances might happen with LOOPER, which coincidentally also came from Columbia Pictures. I had heard great things about the film before I ever had the chance to see it, including from our own Mr. Beaks who had seen it way ahead of time and couldn’t contain his excitement for its awesomeness. But with the studio once again hiding the film in many respects, and the expectations continuing to rise, how could LOOPER possibly deliver all the goods? By showing off an instant classic that literally has everything you want in a movie - time travel and chase sequences and complicated characters and complex moral dilemmas and science fiction and action and romance and violence and revenge and mystery, piecing them together masterfully and purposefully, and packaging them together in a brilliantly rich way that should serve as a blueprint for how to tell story.

There is not one ounce of waste to Rian Johnson’s film that is as much about time travel as it is about the selfishness and short-term thinking we all engage in that does nothing to break the cycle of behavior that continues to plunge the human race into new depths year after year. There is so much depth to the character of Joe as played by both Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, a man whose motivations change between different time periods and between both actors, that it makes for a fascinating watch seeing two actors playing the same person as if he was two completely different people.

LOOPER is one of the more satisfying and fulfilling movie experiences I had in 2012. Each line of dialogue has something to say. Every character has a distinct purpose. And every second of the film locks you into its greatness. This is one that will stay with us moving forward for quite some time.

4. THE RAID: REDEMPTION

Bad action movies are a dime a dozen in the United States, substituting big explosions, tons of special effects and dizzying camera movement for anything that might actually be deemed action. So, when a great action movie does come along, which seems to be quite rare these days, you know it the second it shows up on the big screen and starts kicking your ass. THE RAID: REDEMPTION is one of those special ones.

Gareth Evans takes an elementary premise – a police squad trapped in a building full of criminals, forced to fight their way out for survival – and packs it so full of beautiful action that you begin to wonder why it seems to be rather difficult for others to make action flicks that aren’t total shit. Evans understands that the action is the star of a film like this, be it in the form of gunplay or martial arts, and allows it to take center stage to really impress the audience. How many times can we see things get blown up before it becomes tiresome? I think we’ve already reached that point. But a two-on-one brutal battle with a man known as Mad Dog that leaves you exhilarated even while having a decent idea how the scene is going to end…? I could watch that all day long.

THE RAID: REDEMPTION puts back something that’s been desperately missing from the action genre for far too long – excitement – and with a pace that never seems to let up, this thrilling movie helps redefine not only the type of action movies that we want, but the types we really do deserve.

3. CLOUD ATLAS

I have hardly been a defender of the Wachowskis over the years, as, prior to this year, I counted BOUND and the first MATRIX as their finest efforts... and that's it. I don't have much love for the rest of THE MATRIX Trilogy and I have a hard time buying SPEED RACER as anything more than a visual overload. But teamed with Tom Tykwer for the adaptation of David Mitchell's CLOUD ATLAS, the Wachowskis have once again proved they are incredible storytellers, able to manage a palette of big ideas, multiple character arcs and stunning visuals.

For CLOUD ATLAS, the Wachowskis and Tykwer show they have a firm grip on the material, and, as massive in scope as it is, they refuse to let its six different stories get away from them or allow it to become overwhelming for the audience. During a year when quite a few films failed miserably at asking big questions, CLOUD ATLAS intelligently heads into the territory that everything is connected across thousands of years. No matter how small or insignificant you believe your life is, its effects ripple outward, affected those you know now as well as those you've never met or will never know in the present day and the future. Our mark on the world is permanent and definitely felt by others.

Between its hypnotic score (which I still have in regular listening rotation) which shifts between the various stories and styles of the film, the large cast ready to take on whatever variation of their roles the arcs call for, and an unbelievable editing job that weaves these parallel timelines together rather symphonically, CLOUD ATLAS is a well-crafted film that is sure to find a new appreciation in the future. It is just going to take a bit for that genius to ripple forward.

2. DJANGO UNCHAINED

This is the one film I thought would have ended up on my year-end Top 10 list back when I read an early draft of the script months ago, and, as Tarantino always seems to do, he has delivered another gem in his legacy to be automatically enters into the debate over his best movie to date. As a fan of Tarantino's since RESERVOIR DOGS, I can't say that he's disappointed me yet (and yes, that even includes DEATH PROOF). Film after film, he continues to put forth what feels like his best effort, producing a string of films that have no problem standing up against the others he has to his name.

DJANGO UNCHAINED is no different in that respect, as Tarantino has one again tackled on a genre - this time, the Spaghetti Western - that he's been enamored with for quite some time, putting his own spin on it in an attempt to make his own entry that can be judged favorably against those that have come before it. While its story is told against the backdrop of slavery, DJANGO UNCHAINED may be the most fun of Tarantino's films, as fucked-up as that sounds, fully committing to a hero's journey for rescue and revenge while also submitting four of the year's best individual performances for your enjoyment (Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel L. Jackson).

Tarantino continues to make films that all feel different from each other, while also sharing that feeling of being something QT. It's a unique brushstroke he's able to paint these masterpieces with, and whether it's the slick dialogue or the interesting characters or the fresh stories, it's always a pleasure to take in a new Tarantino flick. With each new picture, you know you are watching a superb filmmaker deliver his best. That's been the case with all his films thus far... and it's once again the case with DJANGO UNCHAINED.

1. THE GREY

Having seen Joe Carnahan’s latest film for the first time back in late 2011, I almost included it on my year-end list then. But, with THE GREY not getting its official release until January of 2012, I elected to hold off on ranking it until audiences far and wide had the opportunity to take this powerful film in.

Look… I get it that there are plenty of people who feel snookered by the marketing on this movie, lured into the theatre by the idea that they were paying money at the box office to see Liam Neeson go toe-to-toe with a pack of wolves out in the wild. You certainly didn’t get what you bargained for… but what you did get was something much better, as you went on this emotional journey with a bunch of plane crash survivors who seemed destined for death yet continued to find things to fight for, making the insurmountable goal of living worth the trouble.

THE GREY is one of those films that really gets at your guts, as you identify with and understand the plight of these men living out their worst fears, hoping to have the opportunity to get back to their wives or daughters or parents, if for no other reason than to be able to say their goodbyes. It’s a reminder that our time on this earth is short and can be over rather suddenly, so there’s no time like the presence to share your feelings with loved ones, because a second chance to do so is hardly a guarantee.

I saw THE GREY on three separate occasions back around the time of its release, and each time I found myself crying… at different points, too… for how deeply the film affected me on an emotional level – as a man, as a father, as a sympathetic human being – with the tragic idea of wanting just one more day, one more moment with those that mean the most to you and probably not getting it, no matter how hopeful you tried to remain that you’d make it through every obstacle put in front of you okay.

Liam Neeson absolutely sets the tone here as the tough guy we’ve come to know over the years who, under the circumstances, is certainly not afraid to admit he’s afraid, and Frank Grillo provides an interesting support as someone who really has no reason to fight on, considering the terrible hand life has dealt him along the way, yet continues to do so anyway.

Sure, there are wolves that are threatening their safety, but there’s so much Carnahan’s film really gets at in its intimate moments, in really examining what’s important to us all, that it doesn’t matter if Neeson throws down with them or not. THE GREY is about the journey of these fully realized characters, which makes for an outstanding film. This is one that’s stuck with me through the entire year in how deeply it impacted me with its raw emotion, and, for that, it’s earned its well-deserved place atop my Top 10 list for 2012.

That's all for 2012, which has been another interesting year in cinema, filled with the good, the bad, the ugly and the disappointing.

Seen it five times. Fortunately, I had not watched a second of publicity and from looking at the poster, it was going to be a film about Liam Neeson's giant face.
Part horror, thriller, action and existential drama, there is something new to be found everytime I see it.

I completely agree with End of Watch.
I saw it yesterday on a flight from Dubai to Dulles and was completely engrossed in the film. The characters were so fully realized that I couldn't blame the copious amount of wine I consumed on the flight for the tears I ended up shedding.

The events of the climax seem wholly unnecessary and are out of place with the feel of the rest of the film. It's like the director got a note from upstairs asking him to put a shootout at the end of the film so he threw together a half-assed plot to set it up.
The film would have been much stronger without it.

Agree with you on The Grey. Fortunately a mate of mine prepped me that it was more then wolf punching. My only minor quibble was how conveniently he stumbled into the den in the end. The chances of that happening are just too slim. Should have just been him and the wolf out in the open. But such a minor thing. Totally deserved an academy just for his god speech alone.

There are a few decent films on that list, and some independent films I've yet to check out, but then he topped the list with schlock like Cloud Atlas and The Grey.
It's his list, so that's fine, but damn. I'm beginning to wonder if anyone who works for this site has decent taste in films because it's not looking good so far.

...c'mon, that big flaming turd of a dud didn't disappoint? I would have bought it if you'd have said that you kind of liked it. But it idin't disappoint you? So you were expecting that? I mean, the guys makes an homage to drive in flicks of the 70's dealing with a serial killer and a bunch of women and just like any typical exploitation director of the 70's he features the women sitting around talking about car movies.

...is just blindness, it's love for the concept and that ambition, and pure ignorance at it's failure at basic film-making. There's no heart or soul at this film...most of it has been left in the book. You go through a dense 3 hours not caring a lick about any of these characters because they don't act like normal human beings they just act like superficial characters off a page. Taking all the dialog parts and skipping all the inner thoughts that filled them out.

Even though my top 10 would have flip-flopped #"s 1 & 2, it's good to see The Grey at #1. That was my favorite movie this year, until I saw Django on Christmas. But its good to see that somebody had the same reaction and admiration for a movie, as I did for The Grey. So kudos to you Kidd, The Grey is indeed a masterpeice.

I definitely wouldn't have put The Grey as number 1 that's craziness. But overall I like the list, I'm really suprised. Because most of the movies The Kidd reviews he hates, and really comes off as a pretenious prick.

Best Overall: Django Unchained
Best Political: Lincoln
Best Action: The Raid
Best Sci Fi: Looper
Best Buddy Action: Safe House
Best Adventure: John Carter
Best Superhero Team Up: The Avengers
Best Waste of Time: The Dark Knight
Best Trailer: The Dictator
Best Dropped Ball: Prometheus
Best Girl Empowerment: Brave
Best Comedy: Ted
Best Needless Reboot: The Amazing Spiderman
Best Until The End: The Bourne Legacy
Best Bestiality Joke: The Campaign
Best Animated: Paranorman
Best Superhero: Dredd
Best Use 'so?': seven psychopaths
Best To Be Cult Classic: Cloud Atlas
Best Spy Drama: Skyfall
Best Gun Knife: The Man With The Iron Fists
Best Film By Numbers: Red Dawn
Best Hallmark Movie: Playing For Keeps
Best Bathtub Fight Scene: Jack Reacher
Best LOTR Prequel: The Hobbit

The Grey has a place in my all-time Top 20, in fact. It's that good.
I purchased the Blu-ray/DVD combo pack of The Grey on the day of release earlier this year and, when I (finally) purchased a high definition TV and Blu-ray player earlier this month, The Grey was the first film that I watched on the new setup.
Django Unchained would certainly fit somewhere in my Top 5 of 2012. Another superb Tarantino flick for the ages.

The Grey would have been better if it would have been merely a story about Man vs. Nature without all the goofy smart CGI wolves. Hey, how did they cross that ravine? Cloud Atlas was just too self-indulgent, bloated, and cheesy.
Better movies...
The Dark Knight Rises
Argo
Lawless
Easy Money
Skyfall
Dragon
The Thieves

I feel like he's physically on screen circling things, pointing at things, and telling us all about the old movies he's watched. I'd love his movies if only he'd get off screen. (Not literally of course.)

So, what other movies were contenders for "best bathtub fight," "best dropped ball," and "best reboot?" Saying they were the best suggests there were others tha were not as good.
(Of course, your list was probably tongue-in-cheek, as is this post.)

I watched it now 3 times because i really like the feeling of the movie, the scenes with his woman, him as a child with his father. The music. How they manipulate you effective ... for nothing. Its only the imagery and some voices, the movie has nothing to say. Not a bit. And you are proven right by watching the last scene (after the credits) that Joe Carnahan has nothing to say. A fine example of a movie that throws some bits at you that provoke a feeling and does not know why. Watch Joe Carnahan on youtube how he talkes about the poem he has written and what it is meaning for him ...

The Grey is very disappointing. I won't go so far and say it's terrible, but it definitely shouldn't be in a top ten list. Maybe an honorable mention.
I'll reserve judgment on Cloud Atlas until I see it on blu ray. I fell asleep no less than 5 times while watching it in the theater. I was drunk too.
Looper is the most overrated piece of shit garbage ever, and every fanboy that loves it is a fucking moron. It's boring, unfun, illogical and dumb. Maybe if Bruce Wilis was able to kill that little bastard fucktard, then the movie would have had at least one redeeming virtue. I realize time travel is difficult to pull off, but at least make it fun, and try to keep the logical inconsistencies to a minimum.

Dredd 3D is much better than the Raid, and I even kinda liked the Raid. The female villain in Dredd 3D would have whupped all the bad guys in The Raid.
It's hard to be scarred of a bad guy that purrs all his lines. Maybe that's just the Indonisian language, but it's not very menancing.

When its got 1 last chance to redeem itself and proove that a sense of faith works, the guy saying it gets his foot stuck and dies in shallow water, making neeson a God-hating shell. Then he attacks a wolf out of anger as a "fine God doesn't exist ill do this on my own" moment and it pretty much kills him.
Terrible ending.

Because the Kidd is really really really cool. He's much cooler than you - and he hates the drivel you like.
Forget about the fact that the most obvious aspects of every film he reviews seem to go right over his cool little head.

I mean you, ryusei. At least Looper was somewhat original. I realize I think it was based on a graphic novel but it wasn't a sequel, prequel, remake, re-imagining or comic book movie in the conventional super hero sense.
The only things that stuck out about Looper was one, in a future where it's impossible to get away with murder, they kill Bruce Willis' girlfriend pretty easily.
And two, why does the young version have to kill his own old version of himself? There's more than one looper. Why couldn't Bruce Willis be sent to a different looper than Jennifer Love Hewitt? Seems like that would solve the problem of young loopers letting their older counterparts go.
But overall I thought it was going to be the typical high concept sci-fi set up to what amounts to a 2 hour chase scene. Your Logan's Run, any movie based on a Philip K. Dick story but it had a little more than that. These are the types of sci-fi movies they should be making, not making us sit through yet another origin story of some fucking comic book super-hero or a re-imagining of a far superior film.

I'll offer, after much contemplation and discuss with others who liked this film is that Ordway is the one who is dying in the hospital bed and not his wife.
At the end when we finally see he and his wife in bed with the IV drip, the drip was on his side of the frame. Could have been for shot composition, could have been more.
She is much more upbeat to the situation each time they are shown together. He is more cynical, using his cynicism as a defense mechanism.
His near suicide is the ultimate hopelessness he feels upon learning of his disease.
After passing through the denial (suicide) stage, he begins his treatment options.
His battle in the wilderness is the journey of this treatment. He is alone in the wilderness because the other men either represent pieces of Ordway or treatment options he's trying.
Notice that each time he makes a decision someone dies. He decides to try a path of treatment, it fails and one of the men die. So either a piece of him dies or a treatment option fails.
Once all of his options are extinguished he becomes angry with/feels abandoned by God.
The wallet scene is his life flashing before him.
The wolf at the end is his final attempt to beat the disease.
The post-credit scene at the end represents him beating the disease, but perhaps for only a bit of time.
Thoughts?

Because the words feel so sweet rolling off of my tongue (and typing fingers).
Actually, I mean no offense. It's in jest. I'm just tired of people who refuse to be intellectually honest.
There are movies I like and enjoy that I know are crap and have many faults. I'm not going to defend them until my death, but the amicable idoits of the world that praise a movie and think it's the best movie ever until they see the next best movie ever, annoy the hell out of me.
Looper is overrated. Maybe it strikes a chord with some people, but I just don't understand why so many people love that movie. I'll admit that I'm in the minority, but I'm just dumbfounded.

1. Perks
Even though it wasn't a personal top ten choice of mine, I respect that movie a lot. We are constantly are bombarded with what Hollywood thinks adolescent life is: pretty people with petty problems about popularity. Here is a film that was respectful to its characters and showed that teens go through a lot that adults shouldn't write off. It was a film with honest heart.
2. Safety- Didn't hate this film but I was very aware I was watching an independent film. It has every cliche in the book.
3. Killer Joe- One of the most fucked up films I have seen this year. Matt was awesome in it.
4. Looper was fantastic...it is going to be very high on my list too.
5. Raid: Redemption- How an action film should be done.
6. Cloud Atlas- Still love this movie and will defend it to the day I die. It is the new A.I. for me. I personally loved A.I. and have to defend it constantly.
7. Grey- Showed critics and film buffs January is not a month filled with crap. With this and Chronicle, Hollywood should give this month a chance.

in the story ghost walker (on which the grey is based on) there is no hint about your take on it. in the book you can read a lot more about his backstory and it becomes even clearer that this is no alternate universe. it is ottway with a mysterious, dark past on a survival trip, thinking in inner monologue if and why he is worth it or not to survive. and i think carnahan isn't that "intelligent" person to make a movie like you layed out. but i really like what you've written, because this would give the movie the weight it is missing.

End Of Watch, The Raid, Cloud Atlas, Killer "direct-to-dvd" Joe and The Grey are all better than Dredd? Really? Really? I'll give you Django as that movie was brilliant and The Avengers shouldn't be on any top 10 but this is another AICN list that leaves me wondering....WTF?

Am I the only one who was rather unimpressed by THE RAID?!
Kidd has it in his top ten and Nordling compared it on a par with DIE HARD.
But its a film without any plot and without any characterization. Just action porn. Can anyone even name the lead character?
Its also a film of two halves. The first, is a guns movie with some excellent shoot outs. But then in the second half the cops seem to run out of bullets and the baddies inexplicably switch to machetes as their weapon of choice. It all becomes a bit silly.
The silliness culminates in a guy getting a knife through his hand, hes then hung from the ceiling and endlessly pummeled. This guy is then freed and launches straight into a two one one fight which is so utterly consequence free in terms of people being hurt - it makes a loony tunes cartoon look realistic. When the action becomes THIS unbelievable and reality stretching then it ceases to have meaning for me. Brainless action porn.
To compare it to DIE HARD... what?! Its not fit to lick Hans Grubers boots.

I understand your predicament. I'm 37, I have kids, I was married to a beautiful, big titted woman who kept an incredibly tight leash. I saw very few movies, but then...I got divorced.
Sure it'll rip your soul apart and cost you thousands, but hey I got to see AVENGERS five times this summer!
Hooray!

5) Argo
4) Wreck It Ralph
3) Django Unchained
2) Looper---thought the 2nd half was a lot like Witness and the drama in that was so opposite of the 1st half that it intrigued me...the movie was very straightforward and all the talk about what the end really meant is just people fishing for an inception movie that wasn't there.
1) Avengers...the most fun I've had in a long time during a movie.
Honorable Mentions: End of Watch (Mexican gang scenes were horrible), and DKR (full of plot holes and such a letdown from DK but better on the 2nd viewing with low expectations)

The ending is TERRIBLE, and the found footage gimmick is shoddily employed. There are so many times during the film where you have no idea how a camera would be in that particular space. I'm thinking particularly of the scene towards the beginning where the chief is talking to the whole squad at the station. Did Taylor place cameras all over the fucking room to catch close ups of random character's faces? Also, were those cameras being handled by veteran DPs from shows like "Homicide" or "The Shield"? These distractions constantly forced me out of the reality of the film. Its one of those movies that uses a gimmick cause it thinks it's cool, but abandons its principles when its convenient to do so. Not to mention the absolutely fucking ridiculous idea that everyone else other than Taylor (including the mexicans and the black gang members) would also be carrying cameras and filming everything like we're watching an episode of "Cops". What are we meant to think of this? Did the cops and criminals collaborate on a film together? Are we watching a re-enactment of past events? The more I think about this movie, the more I think "Fuck this movie".

1. Dark Knight Rises (for me better than TDK, because it was emotionally the best viewing of a movie I had in a loooong time)
2. Looper (the first hour was perfect, the rest still very good)
3. The Grey (just gripping and deeply depressing. Loved it)
4. Prometheus (SciFi by a master of the genre. Don't get the hate)
5. Cloud Atlas (big ideas done well... Just wow)
Runners up: Cabin in the Woods, Avengers
Haven't seen yet: zero dark thirty, life of pi, hobbit
Yeah, I know not a popular list around here, but thats how I feel. Fuck you.

I couldnt make it through five minutes of Moonrise Kingdom. Rushmore was different and clever. One trick pony, my friends.
But let's see some respect for The Grey. Finally something that is dark, brooding, and contemplative. A true masterpiece. FACT.

DREDD is easily among my 10 favorites of the year and, frankly, I thought THE RAID was not so hot. Additionally, I found THE MASTER to be truly amazing and I'm surprised to find it absent from so many year-end lists.

They have to be consistent with their earlier praise. They got to see it earlier than most, the site was overrun with ludicrously wild-eyed love of it for a few weeks, the movie came out, audiences saw it, said, "Yeah, I guess it's all right. Not Liam Neeson: Wolf Puncher like I thought it was going to be, but pretty decent," and then AICN went into damage control overdrive. I think The Kidd or Nordling even posted a lengthy, almost angry-sounding "Here's Why The Grey Is Brilliant, and You Don't Get It If You Don't Agree" article.

I am usually a good few months behind on the current movies because I tend to watch most on home release rather than at the theater, and so havent yet seen a good number of 2012 films like DREDD, LOOPER, ARGO, DJANGO, THE GREY and some other promising looking flicks - however this is how the Dojos top 5 stands as of now...
1. THE HOBBIT. The most purely enjoyable movie I have watched this year. A great return to Middle Earth that dovetails with the LOTR trilogy better than anyone could have hoped. Funnier than LOTR but also with moments of gravitas too - and in the Riddles In The Dark sequence perhaps the strongest scene yet for the whole saga. Looking forward to the Extended Edition and many more rewatches of this heartwarming and hugely entertaining fantasy yarn.
2. PROMETHEUS. This is the benchmark for modern science fiction. The master visualist has created a *window* into the future with some of the most realistic sets, costumes and practical fx ever put together for a genre flick. The master has returned and to his immense credit (and fanboys tears) he has created a film outside of the rest of the ALIEN saga - a new trilogy of mystery, wonder and intrigue which I cannot wait to see continued.
3. THE AVENGERS. Wow, this is how you make a popcorn munching summer flick. Massive entertainment value and tons of bang for your buck. A fun fun fun superhero movie!
4. MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL. I never would have thought id have a Tom Cruise Mission Impossible movie above a Bond movie in my faves of the year but this movie just downright enertained on every level. Super slick and with at least four incredible set pieces, any one of which would have been the highlight in a lesser film.
5. WOMAN IN BLACK. What the fuck is this film doing in my top 5? If youve seen it you know. It is just a really classy ghost story. They dont make em like this any more, and for all those (like myself) who have been turned off the horror genre of late by the torture porn craze then this is a return to old values. And if you watch it at night with the lights out it will shit you up big time I guarantee it!

Dec. 27, 2012, 12:31 p.m. CST

by Cobra--Kai

Pleased to see a few other talkbackers have had similar thoughts about THE RAID.
Fuck it, if the Kidd can say THE KINGS SPEECH is overrated then I think its fair to say that he has over rated THE RAID - 4th best film of the year Kidd? Give me a fucking break.

Better yet, let whatever animosity you think you have go.
Something I've learned to do from some advice I got earlier this year. ;)
Have a safe and peaceful New Year and speedy recovery to you mrl.

Dec. 27, 2012, 12:40 p.m. CST

by Cobra--Kai

colon sucks, yeah aicn did it last year with ATTACK THE BLOCK, and the year before with that Polanski film GHOST WRITER. I think they get some paid to promote type arrangement and just churn out article after article after article.
Then when the check has cleared and the film sinks like a cannonball its usually never mentioned again.

....now Kidd, could you show Harry where the spellcheck button is on his computer, and encourage him to proof read his stuff at least ONCE before posting?
Also, could you send Harry a little pamphlet about how to watch a movie beyond contemplating plot, and teach him to accept actors in their current roles rather than as his favorite characters from other movies?
Seriously, I think he thought Les Mis was Fan Fiction about Wolverine and Catwoman.

MOONRISE KINGDOM is one of the best reviewed films of the year (RT, Metacritic); FACT.
As far as a 'one trick pony' goes for Anderson...if we are to watch movies objectively, then just pretend you never saw the pony perform the trick before.

That being the grey,such a great film.
It wasa strange year this year,all the stuff I was hyped for was a bit of a let down, Prometheus (which is getting a bit better with each viewing somehow),TDKR and most recently.. The Hobbit,but as with Prometheus it seems to get better on repeat viewings.
The grey wins hands down for me but I haven't seen every movie released this year,I'm sure I'll discover a few more gems

It was brilliantly acted and shot. The feeling of loss throughout was intense.
However, the movie was completely undermined and ruined by the batshit crazy and hopelessly retarded depiction of the wolves.
Every single thing that those animals did in that movie is the complete opposite of what they do in nature, without exception.
I would have preferred that the survivors run into a group of fucking abominable snowmen. It would have been easier to suspend my disbelief about a threat that doesn't exist in real life and what their tendencies would be versus one that does exist in real life and knowing exactly how they act if you simply open a book or observe them in nature.
Fucking shameful, and frustratingly stupid.

Looper irritated me because I thought, right up to the end, that the causal loop would be closed - it came THIS close to being that rarest of the rare - a time travel movie that is internally consistent. Alas, it avoided the one shot that would have made it complete and so fell over.
I'm harsh on it because it tried so damned hard and then threw it away with a silly error in narrative.
The Grey was tedious, a good telemovie but no more.
Killer Joe was lost to me almost at once because it is so predictable and lacking any actual black humour really. Just lame attempts by actors struggling with a script that, at heart is quite good but REALLY needed redrafting.
End of Watch. Oh gods no. Just.... no.
Agree to some extent with the rest though.

You were the one talking smack about me in another thread. You were the one crying about how you took a bullet for Asi. You still don't get it. You are dumb as a rock. And your little crack about being in good health shows what an asshole you are. You are just a pathetic excuse for a human being. Myself, being a better person than you, wish you nothing but good health. Maybe you will grow up one day.

"Ooo, let's see how much we can fuck with Liam Neeson." How could they tease the broken bottles-taped-to-the-knuckles scene in the trailers, only to show it at the end and then not even show the aftermath?

I saw him talking smack about me and whining about how he took a bullet for Asi. You know what happened. And you see his little post about, "At least I am in good health.". Yeah, he has a lot of class. Thanks for the well wishes. Hope you and yours are doing well in the Triangle. I live in the Triad.

Life is good.
I donated part of my Christmas bonus the charities of both Hurricane Sandy and Sandy hook. yep, I'm some Asshole who is dumb as a rock for sticking up for a Guy who didn't deserve wishing to stay banned because he spoke his mind like so many of us often do.
It's called having the courage of conviction "Amigo". But hey, I won in the end cause The POTUS won FOUR MORE YEARS as i knew he would. That and your buddy got the Banhammer.
Life is good.

I am going to try and explain this to you one more time. even though I said it many times before. My post had NOTHING to do with politics. Can you wrap your fucking mind around that? So, you didn't win shit. Okay, I didn't wish Asi banned forever. He was bragging about being banned. All I said was why don't you go back to being banned. He seems to take a lot of pride in that. Just like he is in the thread.
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/60084
I was tired of him acting like he knows more about anything than anyone else. I am sure he will claim to know more than you about N.Y.C., even though that is where you are from. You called me 39 names before I finally had enough of your mouth. Your attack was unfounded and showed you to be a dick. Laugh all you want, try and twist it any way you want, but you were a dick for the way you acted and you are now acting that way again.

Are you guys bringing arguments from other talkbacks into this one? I can't find any history, just lots of references. I've had some people be continually insulting and antagonistic in different talkbacks, but I don't think it's ever been over the same previous debate.

Sorry, but this site use to be my stable for
Movie, Comics and TV news.
I still come to check out Hercules and the TV
section, but the rest of the pretentious nonsense
on this site has driven me elsewhere.
I clicked on this article just to see if The Kidd and I had any common ground when it came to movies and except for a few wild outlier exceptions the answer is sadly "no".
Everyone has a right to there opinion, but
I must find a new place where I find the opinions "cool" again and not bleak and oozing with elitest sensibilities.
Feel free to rip on me now I'm sure I spelled something wrong. I'm going to crawl back into the content on the far right column and get my movie news elsewhere.

Dredd had bigger ideas and better execution than The Raid. The Raid was good, but Dredd was much better.
Also, add me to the list that doesn't get all the love for The Grey. Another good film with a very good Neeson performance, but there were far too many contrived scenes and conveniences to be taken as anything more than a tone poem.
Of course, I also loved The Hobbit, Cloud Atlas and Prometheus. Add it up and all my credibility on this site is destroyed.

Wow, you guys have really got me wanting to see DREDD - whens it come out on home release?
As a fan of the comic I was quite sceptical of the film prior to release and didnt bother making the trip to the cinema, but I see a lot of talkback love for it and its now topping my must see list!
(brody bruce, never be ashamed of loving THE HOBBIT and PROMETHEUS - my top 1 and 2 of the year!!)

stalkeye, yes I really enjoyed WOMAN IN BLACK. Dont think too many saw it but hopefully one or two talkbackers might be motivated to give it a look after this. It proves that horror doesnt have to revolve around gore and grossness.

I'm just saying there are many douche rockets on this site who would discount my opinions because of it, as if somehow enjoying certain films invalidates what I have to say about other films. Some talkbackers have crawled up their own asses, never to emerge again...
And I do recommend seeking out Dredd as soon as you can, it kicked a lot of ass.

And i have loved most of carnahans previous films ... some were a bit over the top (smoking assassins,. a-team), but even those were highly entertaining, creative, etc .... the grey just sucked ... obvious from about minute 20 they would all get it, and while well shot and acted, not a good or even worthwhile story... just unbelievable, cliched, formulaic, boring, redundant, and went nowhere.... Now Narc, THAT's a masterpiece worthy of top ten lists.... grey, not so much.... Honestly, its not even like it was a thoughtful or oscar-worthy film, it was just a "stranded"-type flick with WILDLY unrealistic wolves, and that was really a big fan of reiterating the fact Liam lost his wife (or whatever, i can hardly remember it was so forgettable)... And frankly, any flick with that ad campaign should have all copies burned and destroyed, not get press as "best of" anything ... Carnahan should have NEVER allowed them to release that trailer... i would have insisted my name be removed from the film entirely, before i allowed them to LITERALLY ruin my ending for EVERYONE... if not the whole film, as people expected more of that type stuff and obviously didnt get it, or even another frame beyond what they saw in the ad!!

Meh. It was an ok movie. Basically, it was was a cliched horror movie, but with nature as the villain. The most interesting part of the movie to me was the fact that he was professionally sniping wolves with his rifle, and that scene lasted all of five seconds.

Garland is basically a genius, imo, so I'm sure the script was great (even with such a simple story), but I was not a fan of the overwhelming color pallette, even knowing and understanding the drugs, etc... When people were high, that's a great time for that colorful crap, but the whole film was like speed racer saturation, and at least there it made sense (childlike, Anime based color influences)... and i also thought the director was very bad at creating a winning version of dredd... And I don't blame urban at all, he's an awesome actor and reading interviews clearly gave it his all and spent hours in the mirror working on expressions, but he can't see what gets put on film, and the director did not get what he should have from urban... What could have been a great little action film from an awesome writer and worthwhile actor, turned into a semi-decent action flick with pretty bad direction...

Thought the action in Dredd had more weight, more visceral, more plausible. Raid is visceral compared to other films with martial arts, but still too much fancy choreography, which I prefer in period martial arts films.

As bad as The Grey was, I'm okay with it being number one, but Looper being anywhere on this list makes me sad. The Grey was disappointing, but it was still Liam Neeson doing stuff. Looper pissed me off and I should have demanding my money back and made the theater owner pay me for my wasted time.

There's so much wrong with PROMETHEUS, but, I don't know. I just dig it.
SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED, was a fun surprise.
SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS was a ton of fun.
DREDD was pretty cool. THE RAID was okay.
SKYFALL was fun, too bad they couldn't convince Connery for the extended cameo that they had intended.
AVENGERS was okay, but it wears thin fast.
THE DARK KNIGHT RISES tried too hard to be BATMAN BEGINS PART II. On that level it succeeded, but it failed as a sequel to THE DARK KNIGHT and it was THE DARK KNIGHT that people really love.
I haven't seen DJANGO yet.
I haven't seen ZERO DARK THIRTY yet.
I loved BRAVE, I really enjoyed it. I would put it towards the top.
I can't even remember what I saw at the beginning of the year other than JOHN CARTER OF MARS, which I actually enjoyed, but it easily could have been better.
I bought the BOND 50 boxed set, and that's been a lot of fun watching a lot of silly Bond movies.

I forget the details, could even be remembering incorrectly a bit but it's certainly plausible to survive a plane crash relatively unscathed (though, the little girl survived likely due to her small size, sleeping curled up in one of the chairs, etc).
Unlikely, sure...but stranger things have happened.
The Grey is not really a film to be dismantled logically if you wish to analyze why you didn't like it.
You didn't like it and that's perfectly fine. No need to logically justify it by claiming aspects of the film are impossible or unlikely. That can be said about anything.
That said, if it was a truly absurd notion, like say the helicopter nosedive crash (with glass shattered prior to impact) into a typhoon raging sea where everybody not only walks away but doesn't even so much as get a scratch in 'Journey 2' then yes - I'm right there with you.
But that didn't happen in The Grey. I think one could even argue Neeson's character was the 'lucky one' compared to a number of the others who didn't fare so well but, to me, it did not stretch the remotely come close to breaking my suspension of disbelief.

And it's not even that they are necessarily terrible movies--just bland chum that the studios put out each year that SOMEONE ends up buying. That's how I feel about The Kidd's taste in movies.
At least with Armand White you know he's intentionally trolling for website hits. I think the Kidd just genuinely likes really crappy movies. Then he poorly writes about them here.
And the Vs. thing means he never ever has to spend any brainpower thinking up a clever title.

You mean other than the entirely pointless shootout with Bruce Willis in Jeff Daniel's hideout? Or the entirely pointless (and laughably bad) hover bike face-off? The more I think about Looper the worse it gets. People dog the Batman movies when they are illogical, but are ready to forgive the logic clusterfuck that is Looper.

For reasons other than mechanical failure, I mean.
Someone above mentioned wanting to do it. I just couldn't imagine doing it. I'd wind up hating myself for feeling entitled.
I've known people who say they walked out of this-or-that movie. They almost seem proud of it--like they somehow showed Hollywood they wouldn't stand for not being entertained. That's something else I'm not sure I could do. Seems dickish to me.

That movie was just Tarantino crawling up his own ass on a toiletpaper roll of his own hype. Jesus.
There is probably no other statement you could make that would make me disregard what movies you like faster than that.

Even if you didn't think it was your cup of tea then to each there own. But to dismiss it and criticize those who did like it, especially many professional critics, shows how arrogant you are. Let me know when you name appears as a critic on Rotten Tomatoes and I may take your movie critiques seriously.

Walking out of a movie isn't about sticking it to anyone or being an elitist or even showing them that you are not entertained. At least, not for me. For me it is about giving up. When I've walked out of movies it is because I am waiting for it to get better, waiting, waiting, and then as the minutes and hours go by I realize that I would rather to anything else in the world than to give this movie any more of my time. So I leave. Doesn't happen often, but does sometimes. In fact, the list of movies I wish I walked out of is far longer than the list of movies where I actually did.

The Grey has a lot going for it, but the way the wolves pop up out of nowhere was so fucking stupid. Laughable even. It felt like some ludicrous horror movie every time they suddenly appear in a scene. Silliness abounds in an otherwise serious and thought-provoking survival movie.
Looper was the best time travel movie I've ever seen. Until they decide to (slight spoiler) introduce mutants. Sorry, but I really didn't need temperamental-toddler version of Jean Grey fucking up that hardcore time travel noir.
Safety Not Guaranteed won me over completely. Though it was hindered slightly by an alternative storyline involving the editor boss dude's pathetic attempt at rekindling some romance, and his arc from pig to stalker to man with weird attachment issues. But at least the writers dealt with it feasibly.
Killer Joe was near perfection. The only dumb thing in that movie was the scene where Emile Hirsch gets the shit kicked out of him and you can see each swing missing him by a foot. It seemed unusually sloppy for Friedkin. But that hardly detracts from the madness.
The Raid was an amazingly fun action romp. Could have done without the (mild spoiler but only if you have never seen a movie in your life) obligatory betrayal.
Django was the best movie on here. At least until QT pops up doing an inexplicable Aussie accent (though when he appears on screen we have no idea that's what it's supposed to be so we are left to wonder why his performance is so distractingly bad, until the other Aussies start speaking up). But we forgive him anyway because he makes movies with the most "panache." Also dumb: with such cruel and vicious characters, Django gets awfully lucky throughout the film. This is of some QT's finest dialogue yet though. Christoph Waltz fucking kills it and crackles in every scene. And Jamie Foxx is the ultimate badass.
Haven't seen the rest of these yet.
But Argo was probably the best movie of the year. A film for movie geeks, historians and intellectuals alike. Laced with enough profanity to make me wonder if Kevin Smith had a hand in the final draft, and directed masterfully by Affleck. Had he given the lead to a gifted Hispanic actor, it would be a lock for Best Picture. What a dumb move for a smart filmmaker.

It was several months ago. He thought I was making political statements when I wasn't. I tried to tell him I wasn't. He kept coming at me, again and again. One post after another. Calling me a motherfucker and many, many other names. 39 to be exact, before I decided I had enough and gave him a taste of his own medicine. I thought it was all over with. I was reading a thread the other day when I saw him and Asi talking. HE brought up the discussion and started with the name calling again. I had said nothing to him. He was trying to play like he was the victim. I can link you to the original thread if you want, but I don't think it is necessary. I had open heart surgery last Thursday and this asshole wants to make statements like *At least I have my health.* I don't even need to say anything. He makes himself look bad every time he opens his mouth. Yes, I had the surgery, internal bleeding, both lungs collapsed. Yet here it is a week later and I am up, shopping at Best Buy, taking my girlfriend to lunch, etc... I wonder how he would be doing in the same situation.

Yes, I asked for my money back once. It was during the summer and they had no AC. Sorry, but I wasn't going to sit in that heat for 2 hours. They completely understood and had no problem giving me my money back.

Once I watched a movie that was so bad (technical problems) that when the movie was over, theater employees were waiting at the doors to give everyone their money back in cash. True story. Too bad some of my buddies went out the other doors.

There's quite a few i haven't yet caught but from what i DID see...
Favourites of 2012:
1. The Raid. I'm done defending/debating this one. Disagree? Lick my balls. Here, I have tickets. B13. NEXT!
The rest in no particular order:
Chronicle
Argo
The Avengers
God Bless America (wish more people were talking about this...so, so was on my wavelength of thinking)
Wreck It Ralph
Looper
Dredd 3D
Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope
Hoping that Skyfall (which i'll see over the weekend, plus The Hobbit if i can fit it in) will be worthy to add to this list.
Worst Movies 2012:
I saw Never Back Down 2 and would have put that on till i realised it was a 2011 film.
The Expendables 2
John Carter
Worst of all. Battleship. I...I just can't speak about it.
The Meh's of 2012:
21 Jump Street...meh. Some funny bits. Brie Larson is hot. Fucking can't stand Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill so it had its work cut out for it. OVERRATED.
Safe House...Good cast, good premise, utterly conventional execution. Should have stayed confined to the one building.
Haywire...again, good cast. Just dull though.
Undecided:
The Dark Knight Rises
The Amazing Spider-Man
Prometheus
I adore Spider-Man, Batman and the Alien franchises...but there's so many wrong things inamongst the right, i can't tell which is dominant.

I always find these things interesting as some will pop one in you may not have expected.
Theres some here Ive not seen, of the ones I have, Compliance was good but wouldnt make top ten, an interesting choice though.
I agree with Cloud Atlas, it didn't always work but overall was a damn good piece of film making.
Killer Joe was a let down, seen that kind of thing before, acting was good I just didn't really think it was that original or lived up to the trailers promise.
Looper and The Raid were good, may or may not make my top ten, defo in top 20.
The Grey I disagree, it was a complete let down and I hated the ending too, it would be in my worst of the year.
This year though has been a strange one with all the really good films at either the beginning or the end of the year, its looking that way next year too, it seems the blockbuster season is also now headed to March through to May.
i would be interested to a worst list too

Yeh they run through a block of flats courtyard being shot at with semi automatic machine guns from above by numerous crims and only one hits?
No. End of Watch was a well crafted but ultimately hysterical melodrama which missed its mark. Shame, loved his last movie.
But anyone who would put this in their top 10 has made a serious mistake. It's goofy.

The Wolves are just a metaphor for death itself rather than a true representation of the animal. In fact I took the the plane crash as being about the trauma of birth, followed by losing those around you during the journey through life. Leaving the plane was about leaving the nest to venture out into the world. The story doesn't take place over a couple of days it does over a lifetime. That's what I took from it anyway. Every one has a different interpretation... which is why the story is so deep and also why it so acclaimed. You can just sit and hear so many different deconstructions about it, which say about as much about the viewer as the authour.

Forget The Grey, End of Watch had the bait-and-switch marketing campaign.
The trailers for End of Watch made it seem like a tight thriller about a crazy day in the life of two LAPD officers. Instead, the movie took place over several months and had the pacing of a snail race.
I'll grant you the acting and dialog of Pena and Gyllenhaa, but the story just went no where for two hours and the villains were way to broad for a movie like this. They belonged in some low rent Chuck Norris Canon Film.

If we're talking dramatic action movies, then it starts dropping down the list belong films like Leon and sci fi action movies like T2.
The Raid is a flawless movie. Performances, editing, score, choreography, stunts, effects, sound, rhythm. And it did what no action movie has done for me in 30 years. It made me afraid.

These are your FAVORITE films of the year. "These aren't the ten best films of the year, but they're certainly mine." What the fuck does that even mean? The films are yours? No, that's not it. They're your ten best? Again, that implies these are your best achievements. These are your favorite films of the year. Some good picks in here, too. But learn to write your pieces in fucking English (or Spanish or Russian or anything -- just as long as you follow the goddamn rules).

So what's the part before the crash, the pregnanacy? And if the wolves are a metaphor for death, then I guess every villain, personified or otherwise, in a movie where the hero dies, is too... And the notion of a film being a metaphor for death is far from new, exciting or intriguing..I thought it was atmospheric, well shot, and had some decent performances.... and a super redundant premise, plot, and ending. And forgive the tangent, but the reason critics lapped it up is because critics are pathetic. What they saw was Liam Nelson coming off of taken, in another underdog, mans man movie, but one that was well shot and had a more artistic take and message to its ending... As someone who majored in film criticism, and has dealt with many artists, let me tell you most critics are just as embarrassingly pathetic as the people on this forum, they just have better grammar, and a knack for seeing meaning where their lies none... And RE it being good because so many people see different things in it... Yes meaning exists in art, but the unbelievable pass ambiguous mutiple meaning art gets is a joke... If you can't and DONT defend you're art and say exactly what it means, you are making Rorschach tests, and nothing else... It's like songwriters who say you decide the meaning of their lyrics... Pathetic.

Are you honestly saying art is only any good is if is easily explainable? And that explanation should be given explicility by the artist him/herself in the public forum. Oh my dear lord. Did Michaelangelo give guided tours of the sistine chapel telling the patrons what exactly each image was about? Does the fact he didn't destroy it's intrinsic value? According to you, yes it does. I guess in the film world, we should abandon the soundtrack and just play the director commentary in the track in the theatre, so the audience can be told what it is the director is trying to say, so they can understand the movie! LOL! You are a film criticism major... ok I want to hear your interpretation of the following movie: Exit Through The Giftshop.

I think that would be a rare thing. I think you get what you deserve when it comes to movie-going. If you see the trailer for Act of Valor and think that's a movie you'd pay to see...you deserve what you get. That's why movie fans are so discerning and part of why we come to sites like this. We want to see what movies we can look forward to, but also what stinkers to avoid. We learn whose tastes align with our own so we can know whose reviews we can trust.
For these same reasons, I don't think it's dickish to walk out of a movie. If you make a bad choice and you end up watching a stinker, why torture yourself? I walked out of Disturbia, although it was a free screening. I walked out of Tron Legacy because there were some hipsters talking incessantly and the movie wasn't good enough to stay or to ask them to shut up. I walked out of Hugo half way through because little kids were talking and the movie was shit up until the half way mark and I didn't want to suffer anymore.

BTW- get up with pa and u can find out how u can get a hold of me off this site. we need to get those Walking Dead cookouts going now! stay safe!
BTW2- i like 2 Brads but listened to Murphy In The Morning more, that is before the canned him??

facts and truth can never stayed *banned*, beatch.
BTW- love how u ran with ur tail yucked between ur legs from baugh in that talkback. typical progressive...can dish it out, but cant take it. we're still laughing at u for that act of *bravery* LOL. so sad...

Cool. Yeah I know the one, near Dan Allen Dr.
As far as this mess with stalkeye. I really wish you guys would let it go. Those Coaxial tb's got ridiculously out of hand on every side. I hated it, kept my mouth mostly shut till the smoke cleared. Words were said, chests were puffed, but it's over.
We've got a new year with new movies and new debates to be had.
Peace!
-Deceased...

You typically walk out before the end of the money and the theater will give you a free pass for use at a later date. The theater doesn't really care since they know you'll either never use it, lose the pass, or they'll get you back and you'll buy concessions.
I recall doing this with the Hitman movie. I was drunk when I saw it and even then the movie didn't make sense. Besides my friend and I, there were only two other people in the theater. When my friend and I walked out the theater manager confided that the movie wasn't that great.
Strangely enough, I hear from multiple sources that I should give Hitman another shot (hehe).
I also walked out on the Man With Iron Fists about a month ago. I forgot to ask for a free pass, but no big loss.

The Grey and Cabin in the Woods.
People saw WAY more in both films than there really was. If you watch either of them OBJECTIVELY, you'll see them for what they are. Pretentious, self-indulgent, lazily written schlock (ala Donnie Darko or TDK).
The Grey was beautifully shot and it featured a pretty great performance by Neeson. But that's fucking IT. All of the other characters were stupid, one-dimensional walking cliches and the script simply hinged upon contrivance after coincidence after contrivance. Fucking LAAAAAAZY script. Also, it feigned depth. I was fucking stoked when i read reviews using words like: *meditative...ruminative...character study...philosophical...etc.* only to be extremely disappointed after walking out of the theatre. It hardly even attempted any of that. It devolved into a stupid, cliched 10 little indians style horror movie featuring DUMB ASS UNREALISTIC CGI'D WOLVES instead of your typical slasher movie antagonist. Fucking stupid movie. Very similar to Prometheus actually. Well shot, had a fine performance or 2 but it was undone by an appalingly stupid/amateur script that made it literally impossible to be drawn in to the film or care about any of the characters. A complete and utter disregard for logic or authenticity.
Oh but i'm sure i just didn't GET it, right quantize?
Ya dumb fuck.
Please take anything this 'tard says with a grain of salt as he is one of the most ardent supporters/defenders of Alien: Resurrection.
No shittin'.

I saw the Raid early one Sunday morning at the Angelika in Dallas (artsy theater). I was hopped up on coffee and the movie was decent. The Linkin Park soundtrack made the movie worthwhile.
But it doesn't hold a candle to Dredd 3D, and even Dredd 3d isn't the second coming of Die Hard.
If you are a person that thinks The Raid is the greatest action movie ever, then you have some issues you should seek professional counseling on.
It's an okay movie; let's leave it at that before the sane people rip it apart.

I had the same fucking reaction. I literally laughed out loud (which i'm not generally prone to do) when i scrolled down.
And to see the Raid at 4 just caused me to lose just about all respect i may have had for The Kidd (whom i've defended here in the past against the mongoloid geek army deriding him for *hating* on shitty or mediocre films).
But that's just unacceptable. The Raid was over choreographed horseshit. Nothing felt earned in that flick. The script was garbage... the characters were irrelevant and worst of all, fucking BORING. The director's first effort, Merantau was league's better. Even in the fight sequence/choreography department. Left the theatre so underwhelmed after watching that tripe. Almost identical to the feeling when i walked out of Attack the Block. I was so baffled after watching that P.O.S. wondering what illegal substance the AICN staff must have been given before they watched that amateurish dreck.

...was just as stupid, silly, and contrived as any of the films it was mocking. In what fucking way was that flick *revolutionary* or *game-changing*?? It wasn't funny when it tried to be, nor was it the least bit scary or frightening when it tried to be. Completely failed in those 2 departments. The cast was boring. The film just got more contrived, more convoluted, just plain ridiculous by the end throwing in every goddamn *homage* to a previous horror film that it just got overwhelming and much to self-aware for it's own good.
What a raging piece of shit, that movie was. I feel nothing but contempt for that retarded ass movie solely on the fact that it THOUGHT SO HIGHLY OF ITSELF. I have no choice other than to hate it, because of that. Same philosophy when it comes to crap like Donnie Darko and TDK.

Which is why the magnificent, the PHENOMENAL................ Looper tops my 2012 best of list.
: )
*i have yet to see Django, Zero Dark Thirty, and possibly a dozen other flicks that are getting a lot of good buzz that could possibly, albeit unlikely, knock this lovely film off the top of my list*

Thor or Cap'n (both shit). Incredible Hulk was the best of the lot as far as Marvel movies have gone (again, not saying a whole lot), but i fully expected to be disappointed on the way out of the theatre after the Avengers. But what a pleasant fucking surprise that turned out to be!
Joss Whedon fucking handled that shit. HANDLED. Made me actually give 2 shits about all of those characters/actors i haven't liked in any of the prior films. Fuckin Hiddleston ROCKED IT as the big bad. One of the best, most compelling villains in quite some time. The CGI was fantastic (which i usually loathe and detest). And the script? Just really a fabulous script all things considered. Gave every character strong, clearly defined motivations and personality. Great group dynamics. Nice humor, when it called for it. Nice character arcs etc... and a great pace and tone.
May very well be the best comic book movie of all time. And that is one genre i am extremely picky about.

Despite all the vulgarity and offensive (only to the PUSSIES) material... it was actually very classy! The flick had heart. Genuine heart. And better, well drawn and relatable characters than you'd typically find in movies like this. Macfarland proved himself to be a natural screenplay writer and even director! His love of film was noticeable throughout. The little things, like the fight choreography, the car chase, the camera work, and even the score. What a lovely, fucking charming film. It made you laugh, made you cry, and didn't give a flying hippo fuck if it offended anyone.
Which i truly admire. It didn't go out of it's way to offend (unlike anything that shithead Danny McBride does... the fucking imbecile). That is a clear distinction to make. Offensive material is fine, unless it clearly is exerting way too much effort to do so. That's just cheap and lazy. Macfarland's brand of humor may be offensive but only 'cause it's SPOT FUCKING ON and usually done in an unpredictable and clever way. And the sheep don't like that. Being confronted with their ignorance and shitty behavior and whatnot.
Fucking sheeple...

Sam Mendes is one of my faves and i think he knocked this one out of the park. I liked the older/slightly-lost-his-touch Bond angle they went with in this one. I loved Bardem's creepy/effeminate villian. Beautiful cinematography. A mostly great script, until the awkward, mishandled 3rd act. The last 15-20 minutes really put a damper on my excitement for the film as it got really silly with characters behaving stupidly (because the script demanded it) and lazy shit like that. But there was a good emotional core to the story and it was more intimate than most bond films that feature globe-trotting, random sex, and over the top baddies. I quite liked this restrained tale they decided to tell.

Best movie of the year. Absolutely. This is a story that has nothing to do about wolves, but everything to do with God vs Man.
Glad there are those of you that really see that. Here's my full review of it: http://watchfortruth.com/Movie_Reviews.html

I never had a problem with the guy. BUT...I am not going to sit there and let someone attack me the way he did and not stand up for myself. I had let it go, until I saw him bringing it up the other day and starting again with the name calling. It really is hard trying to get through to that guy. He brings up Pres. Obama being elected again and saying he won. I told him until I was blue in the face that my post had NOTHING to do with politics. Talking to him is like clapping with one hand. It isn't possible. One second he says he made donations to help people in CT and Hurricane Sandy. The next he is cracking jokes about me having open heart surgery. Makes no sense to me.

What's going on Amigo? I am doing pretty damn good considering everything I had to go through. Having your chest sawed open with a Skil-saw and then pulled apart like a lobster isn't the most pleasant thing in the world. The most pain comes from the muscles in your back. Everything is thrown out of place. It will be a few more weeks until I am at 100%. I am connected with Pa on FB. I will send him an e-mail and get the info. Hope you and your girls had a great Christmas. I'll be talking to you.

I'm not saying that I'm not a douchebag or a dick, but how is asking for a movie pass to a better movie if I leave a movie after watching 20 or thirty minutes of it and it sucks?
It's my time and my money. Have you ever heard of the "Sunk Costs" fallacy?
Also, if you buy a used video game from GameStop, you have 7 days to return it for a refund or store credit. Is everyone who does that a douche or a dick?
Most people don't have the option of walking out on a movie because they're with other people. If I'm with my girlfriend and the movie sucks or is boring, I just snooze, but if I'm with one of my friends, I can walk.
Maybe you have unlimited time and unlimited funds, but I value my time and money.

The Kidd gets his ass handed to him since he doesn't have a middle school grammar education. You must think I'm trolling you, but you really are that fucking bad. AICN should be ashamed of itself for letting you write for its site. I don't give a damn who's relative you are.

Ladies and gents... the biggest FUCKTARD to ever grace these boards with his presence.
In addition to his awful prose and poor spelling and grammar, his complete and utter disregard for logic, rational thought, and SCIENCE is second to none.
What a human being.

...theeeeee fuck?
There wasn't a single ounce of honest or believable character development, or well defined personalities or memorable character traits. Nothing. The film completely failed to engage on an emotional as well as an intellectual level. Not to mention rather mediocre fight choreography, stunt work, and cinematography. A total stinker.
IMHO of course...

Dec. 28, 2012, 2:37 a.m. CST

by Cobra--Kai

Anton, I thought THE RAID was decent enough for a one watch action movie but the kidd has massively over rated it by saying its top 4 of the year.
I also cant agree with your line that you cared about the characters. What characters?!
The film is set up from the beginning to be pure action porn without any characterization. On one side you have the faceless cops, all dressed identically, wearing helmets, and hard to differentiate. On the other side you have the baddies, all wearing scummy vests and looking similarly identical. These two faceless and nameless groups kill each other until the culmination of the 3 guys walloping each other in a grimy room for ten minutes like loony tunes cartoons. During this ridiculous fight it became meaningless and actually - a crime for an action flick - a little boring.
Its a movie with some good action, but no emotional content and no intellectual content. It is a long..... long..... long...... way from DIE HARD my friend.

Dec. 28, 2012, 2:41 a.m. CST

by Cobra--Kai

hail_to_the_thief, ha! I was typing away while you were writing and thinking pretty much the exact same thing!

...offspring??
That is a shocking turn of events. May The Imaginary Friend In The Sky That Doesn't Really Exist Except In The Minds Of Braindead Gullible Simpletons Like Jay have mercy on their poor souls.
Tragic...

Which means we apparently have similar tastes and expectations when viewing films. Which begs the question....
What in the name of FUCK did you enjoy about Prometheus?!?
Prometheus definitely does not exist in THIS dojo...
; )

is a fucking AWESOME song. Never heard it before until just now.
That chord progression in the 2nd half of that song is frickin' BADASS.
Got me all pumped up now.
I want to go curb-stomp Jay, and then fuck a bunch of HOT BITCHES all while listening to this song on my i-pod.

So black holes are actually baby universes. *Umbilical cords* if you will. Life is cyclical. Energy is re-used and manifests itself in new ways, but it is never created nor destroyed. Star is born, burns for billions of years, creates life on surrounding debris caught in it's orbit (planets) and then burns out it's fuel and implodes destroying everything within it's orbital radius, but gives birth to a brand spankin' new universe. The new universe is observed in the *parent* universe as an infinitely dense, infinitely massive point in space known as a singularity. But from the point of view on the inside of the universe, it looks just like ours, appearing to be infinitely massive with space *expanding* outward faster than the speed of light. And thus, we too are simply one little microscopic point in space of some other universe, and so on and so forth. Turtles all the way down, indeed...
Also, i like titties.

hail_to_the_thief, I like titties too, we must be similar!!!
PROMETHEUS, most of all I liked the *world building*. You saw Michael Fassbender walking through the corridors, and I forgot it was an actor on set because it looked like an android walking through a spaceship - it looked right, it looked real and genuine. As I said a *window* into a sci fi future.
I also really like the character of David. He just pips Martin Freemans Bilbo as the most memorable movie character of the year for me!
Liked lots of other stuff about it too but wont bore you now...

We must have been seperated at birth! I especially like soft and perky ones. Big but not TOO big, you know what i'm saying? Like 36C to 34D is what i'm talking about.
We may have had our run-in's in the past (when i went by different usernames... before all of the unecessary bannings, *ahem*...) but man, you think the Raid is overhyped, vapid, mediocrity AND you like titties? Those are 2 important qualities to have.
I will try my best to overlook your curious, nay, BAFFLING, admiration for Prometheus at this point to maintain our newfound happy, yet most likely unstable relationship.
: )

...to a point. World building, cinematography, visuals and all. But the script, man..... that SCRIPT!?!?
Fuck Damon Lindeloaf up his hairless asshole. For destroying the Alien Saga as well as my beloved Lost.
The fucking fucker...

I actually haven't watched a QT movie since that turd. He was probably my favorite director until then too. I'm sure one day I'll come back to him...but damn that film was HORRID! Here's QT acknowledging it: "To me, it’s all about my filmography, and I want to go out with a terrific filmography. Death Proof has got to be the worst movie I ever make. And for a left-handed movie, that wasn’t so bad, all right? — so if that’s the worst I ever get, I’m good. But I do think one of those out-of-touch, old, limp, flaccid-dick movies costs you three good movies as far as your rating is concerned.”

They "get it" on a level that I do not. They appreciate it in a way that I do not. I am willing to bet that those who put it in their list are those who have had some deep-rooted spiritual or life realization this past year and were swayed by that. For those who just had a regular fuckin year hate it and see it for what it really is, an in-your-face message about hope, faith, and utter nonsense. I went into this expecting to see a cool survival movie, not some super-wolf monster flick with non-impactful banter.

At first I thought it was an odd movie I was going to wish to be over, but I soon found a new appreciation for Wes Anderson and see him as a very original storyteller. I have watched his other movies and thought at the time that he was just odd and those movies did not seem up my alley, but now I feel I should go back and rewatch them.

Its not my favorite QT movie, but its funny whether its meant to be or not and Kurt Russell whining like a little bitch is film gold.. The throwback crash scenes are also hilarious. Oh wait, its not meant to be a comedy, is it?

Plot, writing, paint by number characters. I mean really. All these guys are in the same profession, yet we need to make sure to have the tough guy, the family guy, the (insert) guy. Plot borrowed from ever other disaster film.

Both are on my list of this year's favorites and I didn't expect to see them on anybody elses. I love both of those films quite a bit. They both totally pay off in the end it completely different but equally satisfying ways.
<p>
Also, I wish people would stop bashing the creators of these lists because this or that film isn't on it. It's a personal list, and when you see a lot of films over the course of a year, some films won't make it. TDKR and Avengers would not make my top ten. Not because I dislike them, but because I liked ten other films more.

...at the end that dude drowns with his mouth just inches from the surface. The bad luck plausability meter just tipped too far with that one. I was also annoyed that Neeson's character was such a dumbass that he was leading them all to their doom. Way to go "wolf expert." Ironic deaths and a dipshit main character ruin a movie every time.

Not QT best maybe but it was still a good film. I don't understand the hate. What painting was Picasso's best, what was his worst? They are
all still great works of art. A master is a master,
but you can only have one one greatest work and one least greatest.

And you can rightly suck my fucking cock. What a human being? Yeah, you showed exactly how a human being should act you fucking douche bag. I said nothing to you fuck face.
P.S. And fuck anyone who has similar tastes or thoughts as you, LOL!!!

I get it if you didn't like it.
the movie hit me on a deeper level but not because i understood something you didn't (presuming you're not a moron or whatever).
the reasons are personal and that's the point.
had this not have happened, i'd likely not have been transported by the story. i don't really care for metaphors or tone poem descriptors - valid or not as descriptors, they have nothing overtly to do with liking or disliking a film (nor should they really lest you tread the hipster pretentious walk)
there are certain things it is not - not a wolf fights man action movie nor even really a survival movie (not how i see it). but it's also not profoundly revelatory as some of you are suggesting those of us who like it think it is.
as usual...predictable self-importance and blatant refusal to consider opinions that do not validate our existing views means WAR!!!!!
now that's funny. that's hilarious.

I've never asked for my money back at the end of a movie. I said "I wish I had after watching Looper."
The two or three times, I've gotten a free pass (see, not money, free movie pass), was when I walked out after around 20 minutes.

For many years now I've said I would do this, but I never have. So this year, I did it. I saw a couple hundred movies this year. In alphabetical order, here are the movies that affected me most in one way or another, as an alphabetical list. Not "the best", just the ones I enjoyed the most.
<p>
21 Jump Street, Argo, The Avengers, Brave, Chronicle, Coriolanus, Django Unchained, The Dark Knight Rises, Goon, The Hobbit, Hyde Park On The Hudson, Jeff Who Lives At Home, Killer Joe, Lawless, Liberal Arts, Marley, The Master, Moonrise Kingdom, Perks of Being a Wallflower, Premium Rush, The Queen of Versailles, Samsara, Safety Not Guaranteed, Salmon Fishing In The Yemen, Savages, Skyfall
<p>
Of those, my top ten (I think)...<p>
1. Django Unchained<p>
2. Perks of Being a Wallflower<p>
3. Argo<p>
4. Moonrise Kingdom<p>
5. The Hobbit<p>
6. The Queen of Versailles<p>
7. Skyfall<p>
8. Safety Not Guaranteed<p>
9. Lawless<p>
10. The Master/Coriolanus (I couldn't decide)<p>
<p>
Movies I have not seen, want to see, and may become top tenners after seeing them:
Amour, Anna Karenina, Any Day Now, Cirque Du Soleil: Worlds Away, Life Of Pi, Lincoln, On The Road, Rust and Bone, The Silver Linings Playbook, Tabu, Zero Dark Thirty
<p>
Movie I most wanted to be better than it was: Killing Them Softly
<p>
Movies I would have thought (even) better of if their endings hadn’t felt wrong or unearned: Lawless and Savages
<p>
Movie I most wanted to know more about after it ended: Queen of Versailles (I immediately wanted to know what happened when the cameras stopped rolling)
<p>
Movie I most regret wasting an hour and forty minutes on: Alex Cross

Haven't seen Cloud Atlas, but I agree with most of what you said about all the others. I'd probably have some other movies on my list, but for the most part it seems like I'll have to add Kidd reviews as must read given our similar taste.

''We must escape these wolves! Don't bother looking for a path down. Let's spend that time making a rope out of I dunno what, and then LEAP across to a TREE... crash to the bottom, where the wolves (who found a safe path down) are waiting, because we took so long with our far more dangerous solution."

It's got some end-of-year staples and some totally valid left-fielders. Love this list. I'm curious to see how much ours will sync up when I post mine in a couple of days (gotta cram in Lincoln and one or two more before the end of the year).

It was longer in production/ adapted from the comics and quite honestly these two films can't be more different apart... Also Dredd's gun is so many things???? How many ammo can one gun take??? I didn't know a little gun like that can shoot out missile launchers and flares???

BOOTY CALL is one of those films that really gets at your guts, as you identify with and understand the plight of these men living out their worst fears, hoping to have the opportunity to get some booty, if for no other reason than to be able to say they got some booty. It’s a reminder that our time on this earth is short and can be over rather suddenly, so there’s no time like the presence to get some booty with loved ones, because a second chance to do so is hardly a guarantee.

With which I find no common ground with at all.
What happened to “Ain’t it Cool News”? I mean the Kidd has every right to like whatever he wants to, but where are the writers who like what’s *actually* cool anymore?
The closest he gets is the Tom and Jerry meets a bloodbath in“The Raid” and for Number 1 picks a boring movie that also has nothing to say to boot.
The Grey? Even as a story about Death its just hollow…. and really somewhat goofy. I mean where the hell did that plane Crash land anyway? On the edge of Mirkwood in the middle of Warg country? Cause I don’t know what the hell those animals were, but they sure as hell were not wolves.

THE WIZARD is one of those films that really gets at your guts, as you identify with and understand the plight of these kids living out their worst fears, hoping to have the opportunity to play NIntendo, if for no other reason than to be able to defeat Bowser and Koopa. It’s a reminder that our time on this earth is short and can be over rather suddenly, so there’s no time like the presence to play Ninetendo with loved ones, because a second chance to do so is hardly a guarantee.

THE HOBBIT is proclaimed by CNN as one of the year's WORST films.
Jackson's back to below-KONG career power.
And I couldn't be happier.
Jackson made a bid to try to capture AVATAR's 'game changer' status with a dreadful 'new' technology nobody wanted or asked for - and which almost nobody likes. When the best reviews are 'you get used to it' for a new tech, its' a failed tech that WON'T catch on, thank goodness.
And Jackson is a no-talent idiot whose chintzy effects are really showing wear.

There is literally no amount of negative verbal/textual commentary in this thread that I think is too much to throw at The Kidd.
Far as I'm concerned, people should be free to levy the foulest language possible toward him here.

A movie is only as good as ALL its parts. Doing what you're doing is like looking at all the ingredients laid out for a pie and saying "That's gonna be one HELL of a delicious pie, best pie of the year." Moron fuckwit piece of shit pretentious stuck-up motherfucker.

Oh my god, I know, right? HOLY MOTORS is just the WORST. it's just dreadful. It's also MONSTROUSLY French, to the point where I sort of hoped its existence would mean the French moviemaking of the entire world had been done to the point where no more needed to be said in the realm of French moviemaking. Except nobody had a box on their head holding dynamite.
Oh my god, I hate French movies.

It's the most overrated action movie of the year. The movie had a great first half but when Mad Dog comes into the picture, it's the same goddamn fight choreography over and over. How many times are we going to see the same goddamn kick and punch combination over and over?

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES is one of those films that really gets at your guts, as you identify with and understand the plight of these turtles living out their worst fears, hoping to have the opportunity to get back to their sewer and Master Splinter, if for no other reason than to be able to say they are heroes in a half shell. It’s a reminder that our time on this earth is short and can be over rather suddenly, so there’s no time like the presence to share your pizza with loved ones, because a second chance to do so is hardly a guarantee.

POLICE ACADEMY 2 is one of those films that really gets at your guts, as you identify with and understand the plight of these cadets living out their worst fears, hoping to have the opportunity to get back to High Tower and the guy who makes funny noises with his mouth, if for no other reason than to be able to hear him imitate a helicopter. It’s a reminder that our time on this earth is short and can be over rather suddenly, so there’s no time like the presence to share your feelings with Steve Guttenberg, because a second chance to do so is hardly a guarantee.

10. Amazing Spider-Man
9. Men in Black 3
8. Dark Knight Rises
7. Haven't seen cloud atlas yet
6. Haven't seen Looper
5. Avengers
4. Dredd 3D
3. Django Unchained
2. Life of Pi
1. The Hobbit
I'll never see end of watch because it's about some shitbag cops on the take. Didn't anyone see serpico? They are all pieces of shit. Like watching a movie about some tsa douchebags.
Compliance? Sounds like some shit you serve them Indians. Safety not guaranteed? Heh. Bet it's some cheap ass shit that's nowhere near as good as my science project.

Great year for cinema! I had to change this list around after seeing Django Unchained.
A lot of good films didn't make the cut, which is a good thing since there were so many strong films out this year. Here goes...
1. Django Unchained
2. The Avengers
3. Skyfall
4. Moonrise Kingdom
5. The Dark Knight Rises
6. Argo
7. The Cabin in the Woods
8. Marley
9. Lincoln
10. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

We “got it” just fine. The movie just sucked. It is perceived as deep by some, but wasn’t.
It was somewhat boring
And was somehow was inhabited by Wargs from Mordor.
(I am just reading the middle posts)

1) The Grey...wolfpunching...that never actually happens. Really its a poem about how there is no God...which makes the entire film one giant angry rant. Yes Neeson does a good job but the movie has a ton of suspense that fades away once wolves have a leader and act like some mythical force...then the ending...ugh.
2) Looper...looks like an an action-packed sci-fi Die Hard meets Back to the Future meets 12 Monkeys....then Rian Johnson said he wanted the 2nd half to be like Witness (with Harrison Ford). That stopped me cold...Witness? The no-action drama piece about how a small town changes the life of a city cop?...so knowing that I went into the movie NOT expecting action/violence/Die Hard...and wow, it was much much better because of it.
3) Dark Knight Rises...looks like Batman fighting and flying a jet shooting missiles....really its Gordon and Catwoman doing everything with JGL running around and about 30 minutes of Batman...and when he's flying he isn't shooting missiles, he's just creating distractions so Catwoman can do all the cool stuff. Plus the final Bane/Batman fight is more of the same from earlier where Batman doesn't sneak around or really use skills....the 2nd viewing made this better, knowing it wasn't rrrreally a Bat film.
Now...there's some movies that just follow all the marketing...
1) Avengers...superheroes fighting...done
2) Wreck It Ralph (dont know why more people aren't talking about this film, it came out of nowhere)
3) Django Unchained (ok so the trailer shows EVERY SINGLE part of the movie and should be avoided...but it was exactly what I thought it would be)
4) Argo

The years best trailer hands down...looked scary, suspenseful, crazy cool...and wasn't the least bit scary, suspenseful, or crazy...other than how crazy all of the plot holes were.
By far the most disappointing film this year....with DKR close 2nd.
And idk who said it but whoever puts Amazing Spiderman and MIB3 on their BEST OF list needs to have their head examined...or needs to state that they are 12 and their parents are allowing them to use the internet.

Rewatched the movie last friday, i showed it to a friend of mine. He was blown away, and i was moved again by it. This is the type of movies that Joe Carnahan exels at, and it's only opther movie that can sit in the companion of his other excelent film, Narc.
The Grey also makes for a very good companion with the movie The Hunter, another movie i found very moving.

I agree with much of what you say about movies, and am not particularly religious….but you bag on Christian’s as dumb and then dump your back hole theory?
Uh, listening to Chesterton or Lewis speak of the proofs of a creator is much more intelligent and logical than what you posted about alternate universes and existence….so I’d take it easy with the stones….